Parole KO'd in Dracut teen's rape

DA: 'This was a horrific crime'

NATICK -- Gerard Beaulieu's bid to become a free man after serving 34 years in prison for the rape of a Dracut teenager will have to wait until 2018 at the earliest.

The state Parole Board denied Beaulieu's plea for release in a unanimous decision issued last month, saying the former Lowell man still poses a "significant" concern for women.

Beaulieu is serving life in prison for the 1979 rape of a 16-year-old Dracut girl.

"Mr. Beaulieu has a history of extreme violence and sexual offenses against women," the board's Dec. 5 decision said. "The Board is concerned about his lack of support system, inconsistent commitment to treatment and his pattern of victimization of women as significant public-safety concerns."

With the parole denial, Beaulieu, who is in his 60s, must wait another five years before he can apply for parole.

While the victim could not be reached for comment, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone applauded the Parole Board's decision, saying Beaulieu should spend the remainder of his life in prison.

"This defendant used manipulation and deceit to gain access to this young woman and thereafter assaulted her in a brutal and vicious manner. This was a horrific crime and we will continue to stand with the victim and her family who have lived through a long and difficult legal process to attain justice in this case," Leone said.

In 1979, Beaulieu, then 28, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, kidnapping and the attempted murder of the Dracut teenager.

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He was sentenced to three life sentences in prison with the possibility of parole.

In his statement to the Parole Board at his Sept. 11 hearing, Beaulieu said, "I'm sorry. I know I've caused so much suffering ... I will never hurt anyone again in my life."

According to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, the Dracut High School student was at home cleaning the apartment on Feb. 4, 1979 when Beaulieu called and identified himself as a friend of her mother.

Beaulieu told the board he had broken up with his girlfriend, was drunk and called the victim's mother, whom he met at a bar.

The board noted in its decision that Beaulieu blamed his past alcohol addiction "as either the primary or sole precipitant to the violent sexual offenses that he admits to committing."

Shortly after the girl hung up the phone, the victim opened her apartment door to go to the laundry room and saw Beaulieu standing there. Beaulieu asked if he could come in and use the phone to call a friend for a ride. The victim, believing him to be an acquaintance of her mother, allowed Beaulieu to enter the apartment.

While she was in her room making her bed, Beaulieu grabbed her from behind, threw her onto her bed and raped her. Then he tied her hands with a telephone cord he had ripped from the wall.

Beaulieu put a coat over the victim's head and dragged her outside to his car. At one point, he stopped the car and raped her again, according to court records of the case. Beaulieu then drove to a secluded area, untied the victim, and raped her again. He dragged the victim out of the car and into the woods, where he stabbed her in the chest and abdomen five times and left her to die.

"But at the end of the night, I didn't want to get caught. I thought (killing her) was my only way out," Beaulieu told the board.

Covered in blood, the victim managed to stagger to the road, where a passer-by helped her.

At the hearing, the victim's grown daughter described Beaulieu as "a monster" and told the board that her mother lost so much blood, she was 15 minutes from death.

The Parole Board wrote in its decision, "But for the ability of the victim ... to escape, he (Beaulieu) admits that he would have killed her after brutally raping her three times."

It's not the only time Beaulieu has brutally attacked and sexually assaulted a woman. He has previous convictions in 1971 and 1977.

At a previous hearing, Beaulieu also admitted to 10 to 12 other rapes for which he was never charged in which he got the women so intoxicated they were incapable of consent. Beaulieu appeared to shock the board when he said he didn't consider those rapes.

"I didn't feel they were rape victims," he said. "It was consensual sex."

The board wrote in its decision, "Mr. Beaulieu's view today of his past sexual behavior toward other women remains very concerning."

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